“We think there’s an opportunity to purchase some of the
shares as we’re very confident in the direction that we’re
going,” Murphy said by phone yesterday from New York. “We’re
excited about small business users. We have the ability to
engage customers at the right time, whether on mobile, social or
on the site.”

LivePerson, a maker of software that allows businesses to
track customers surfing their websites, surged the most in a
month yesterday, adding 3.7 percent to $12.75. Shares had fallen
18 percent through Dec. 6 after the company forecast on Nov. 6
fourth-quarter profit that trailed estimates. The Bloomberg
Israel-US Equity Index of the largest New-York traded Israeli
companies rose 0.2 percent to 87.63. Chipmaker Tower
Semiconductor Ltd. rallied after Texas Instruments Inc.’s
forecast met estimates.

LivePerson said it plans to spend as much as $20 million to
purchase 2 percent to 3 percent of its outstanding shares. The
software developer, based in New York with some operations in
Tel Aviv, will probably post revenue growth of 18 percent this
year, according to the mean estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg, the slowest pace since 2009.

‘Relatively Small’

LivePerson topped more than 1,000 small-business customers
in the third quarter, it said on Nov. 6, and had $103 million in
cash in its balance sheet at the end of September.

“We’re comfortable with $100 million on the balance
sheet,” Murphy said. “We’re still a relatively small company,
and think it’s not the worst thing in this economy to have a
good amount of cash on your books.”

Shares fell on Nov. 7 after the company forecast fourth-quarter profit that trailed expectations and Chief Executive
Officer Robert Locascio told investors in a conference call that
“delivery of recognized revenue was slower than anticipated.”

“That was not a problem, however, with product demand but
rather an execution problem that can be fixed,” Richard Fetyko,
a New York-based analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC who has
a buy rating on LivePerson, said by phone yesterday. “The
buyback is meaningful, and it’s also an indication of the
management’s confidence that their shares are undervalued.”

Tower Gains

Israel, which has a population of similar size to
Switzerland’s, has 54 companies traded on the Nasdaq Stock
Market, the most of any country outside the U.S. after China.
The nation is also home to more startup companies per capita
than the U.S.

Dallas-based Texas Instruments, the largest maker of analog
chips, gave an updated fourth-quarter sales forecast yesterday
that was in line with analysts’ estimates.

“If TI’s numbers are a harbinger of a recovery in the
semiconductor sector, that could benefit a foundry company like
Tower,” Jay Srivatsa, the managing director of equity research
at Chardan Capital Markets LLC who has a buy rating on Tower,
said in a phone interview yesterday from San Francisco.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. dropped 2 percent to
$41.67 as Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Levin told investors in
New York that the world’s largest maker of generic drugs will
focus on drug-development efforts as the company seeks to
replace medicines set to lose patent protection in the next
three years. Shares of Petach Tikva, Israel-based Teva traded in
Tel Aviv this morning lost 2.4 percent to 159.2 shekels, or
$41.88.